What's your favorite dog toy/accessory?

Jun 10, 2012 2:44 PM

Though I consider the Chuckit to be one of the greatest inventions of all time, I'm looking for something new to keep my energetic canine occupied and happy. I might look at today's Petsmart sponsored deal I I can come up with any ideas.

Top Answers

The Kong is great entertainment if you just want your dog to lie down and be quiet for a little while. My dog looks forward to her afternoon treat every day (I fill it with mozzarella cheese) and it keeps her occupied for about an hour. Afterwards she naps :)

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The Kong is great entertainment if you just want your dog to lie down and be quiet for a little while. My dog looks forward to her afternoon treat every day (I fill it with mozzarella cheese) and it keeps her occupied for about an hour. Afterwards she naps :)

Do you have a fenced yard? If so, think of it as a possible playground, rather than as a useful potty facility. Balls, toys, perhaps even some basic agility equipment can be helpful in keeping dogs busy. Many will self-entertain quite nicely, given equipment to do so. A dog-trainer friend periodically "salts" her yard with kibble and assorted treats; her dogs will happily spend an hour or so carefully searching the entire yard for a little nibbly payoff.

I feel like I've been through a pet store's worth of toys to figure out what mine enjoy. Do you have a sense of whether your muppet likes to chew on things, tear things apart, play by his/herself or with you? And you looking for ways your dog can entertain him/herself while you're home, toys that can soothe while cuddling, toys for while no one is home? And how big is your dog?

@neuropsychosocial: I'd classify her as a chaser. Tennis balls and chipmunks are her passion. She does chew on nylabones some but gets bored quickly. 75 lbs of unlimited energy so I'm mostly looking at outdoor play items.

Nothing replaces a playmate, namely the human. Kong's great for downtime-style nervous energy displacement, great tool to replace things you don't want chewed. We never had to put cheese or peanut butter inside, our late Jack Russell didn't want that. His jaws and neck, however, got larger and he got to the point of breaking things he bit- accidentally(he claimed).

Our older yellow lab likes this toy. It's like crack to him...give it a couple squeaks, throw it and he will forget about anything except fetching that toy. He even stops eating to fetch it...not sure what there is about it, but it's definitely him.

It drives our pets wild going after the beam, and it also works on our two year old daughter!

But it just doesn't work on OUR pets,,,,,,,,,,,,we have a goofy neighbor with a spastic cat, that likes to sit in the window that faces our house. Sometimes when the neighbor has really pissed me off, and they have left their shade up, I'll have that cat climbing the walls, knocking off pictures, and books off the shelves, you name it.

It's a real stress reliever for me, and as long as I don't do it too much that they put the cat to sleep, I'm not loosing any sleep over it.

I almost have that cat jumping high enough to hit the panic alarm on their security system..........I'll save that one for an early warning wake up call the next time they drive through my yard drunk!

My dog is a 140lb Great Dane and he plays hard. Few toys can withstand his might, and few that can are of any interest to him. I have wasted more money on kongs and nylabones than you can shake a fetch-stick at. The three things he loves best:
1. A 20" zoo ball. This huge, indestructible plastic ball is made for bears and lions to play with. Simba plays with this thing nonstop. http://boomerball.com/3-boomerballs (video of Simba playing with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDAd2wdpuQ)
2. A large cut of naturally shed antler. Antler is made of hair, so it is a safe and long lasting chew toy. No deer here so I got it on EBay. This is similar: http://tinyurl.com/7mswol83.
3.A big stuffed kiwi bird that I got at a garage sale for .12 cents. It's a kid's toy, not a dog toy, and of the hundred or so stuffies he owns, he loves it by far the best. He is very careful when he plays with it and hasn't torn if after years of play.

My two dogs (Lab/shepherd and herding mutt) pretty much ignore every toy I've brought home, with the exception of the two squeak toys I recently broke down and bought. They don't chew or chase balls or sticks, or play with the kong I got, even when I fill it.

My suggestion: buy cheapish and see what they go for, and only introduce one toy at a time.

@mohicus: I have no experience with 70 pounders! At the dog park, I've seen owners of big dogs use tennis ball catapults to shoot tennis balls easily 100"+ - although my backyard, at least, is way too small for that! For indoor chase, my littley ones enjoy Wubbas: they're relatively aerodynamic, not prone to sliding under furniture, come in different sizes, and make good combined fetch/tug-of-war toys; the dogs tend to hold onto the strings and the bulb makes a solid grip for my hand. Of course, you may not want to play indoor fetch with a 70lbs dog! (If you look closely at the furniture arrangement in my house, you'll notice that there's a straight corridor along the longest continual diagonal to accommodate Wubba-throwing!)

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